Manufacturing And Warehousing IT News For VARs — January 27, 2015
By Trisha Leon, contributing writer
In the news, an article shows the ROI of automating service contracts, and the Conference Board Index shows a gain for the fourth straight month.
How Your Clients Can Benefit From Automating Service Contracts
The article, “Preventative Maintenance: Simplifying Service Contract Management,” in Industrial Distribution explains how to run a successful service operation. Advancements in enterprise and mobile technology have created huge opportunities to provider equipment maintenance more efficiently. This article outlines areas of focus — like preventative maintenance — and steps toward building a business through a consistent customer base. As the article states, “Research has shown that companies that maintain preventive maintenance out-earn companies that don’t. It’s clear that using software to simplify preventive maintenance will drastically increase your earning potential; and automating service contracts is the perfect place to start.”
Conference Board Index Shows Fourth Straight Gain
The Conference Board said that after gains in September, October, and November, its index of leading indicators increased 0.5 percent in December. Manufacturing.net explains the index is designed to predict the future health of the U.S. economy.” Ataman Ozyildirim, a Conference Board economist says, “The short-term outlook is getting brighter and the economy continues to build momentum.” While a lack of growth in residential construction combined with lower weekly manufacturing hours remains a concern, overall experts expect growth to continue through 2015; this prediction, if realized, would be the strongest economic growth since 2005.
White Paper Discusses Common IT Security Problems And Practical Solutions
The Whitepaper, “5 Things Your Organization Can Do to Improve Security,” featured by ITWorld, details five common problems with business IT security and practical ways to address these problems. IT security is becoming a number one concern among many enterprises, and as security threats become more complex, they also become more difficult to detect. Consult this whitepaper for solutions to some of the most frequent security issues here.
Manufacturing And Warehousing IT Talking Points
In a Supply Chain Digest blog post “Best Practices for Lean International Supply Chain Operations: Five Ways to get Started in Right-Sizing your Approach to International Supply Chain Management,” Stephanie Miles senior vice president of commercial services at Amber Road states, “Eighty-eight percent of companies have global supply chains today, according to an Aberdeen report. Yet investment in these operations lags behind domestic operations. In order to compete globally, companies must expand their focus to maximize international efficiencies.” She goes on to provide five ways to approach international supply chain management. Though achieving global growth involves expending time, effort, and resources, improving an international supply chain keeps an operation competitive in today’s market.
The Cloud Tech article, “What happens when data gets lost from the cloud?” by Dan Virgillito, emphasizes that despite benefits offered by the cloud, data stored there is not safe; he says, “things can go awry at any point and a crash/failure may permanently destroy some data.” There are, however, preventative measures that can be taken to protect data stored in the cloud. Virgillito explains the many ways data can be lost from the cloud, and outlines six steps to minimize data loss. Taking these important steps won’t guarantee that data is perfectly secure, but will ensure a business has taken precautionary steps to mitigate loss in the event of a breach or failure.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Manufacturing And Warehousing Tech Center.